


Room 408

by notallwindows



Category: Here U Are (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Chinese Food, Dorms, Gen, Roommates, i imagine room 408 gets up to a lot of buffoonery, there probably will be minor Yu Yang/Li Huan but it wont matter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2019-10-21 03:58:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17635601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notallwindows/pseuds/notallwindows
Summary: Ruminations on the daily lives and nonsense of four college boys sharing a dorm. Including but not limited to arguing over bubble tea, playing DnD, fighting homophobes together, and watering Lao Jiang's bonsai for him. (collection of one shots. irregular updates)1. Lemon Tea, More IceYu Yang buys bubble tea for the dorm for the first time. He also finds out their drink preferences.2. There's Always Room 706 不行还有706室On the first day at school, Yu Yang finds out his dorm assignment is on the fourth floor. (with chinese translation 附加中文翻译）第一天开学，虞扬发现自己被安排住在四楼。3. Fragment a là Sappho





	1. Lemon Tea, More Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu Yang buys bubble tea for the dorm for the first time. He also finds out their drink preferences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's canon that the entirety of dorm 408 gets more ice with their drink orders, and I am so devastated and confused as to why???? people who get more ice with their tea have NO rights.

**1\. Lemon Tea, More Ice  
Date: Two months after the start of First Year**

****

The first time Yu Yang collated orders drink orders in freshman year, his eyes nearly fell out of his sockets. 

“You guys get more ice with your tea? Added ice?”

“Yeah,” Lao Jiang said, turning from his computer to stare at him with wide eyes. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“I– what?” Yu Yang felt so wrong-footed, he didn’t even know where to begin explaining what was wrong. Getting tea with more ice was about as impious to him as entering the pool with socks. “The drinks cost money? The– the _Expense_?”

“Yeah, so?” Lao Jiang tilted his head at him in incomprehension. Was he issuing a challenge? Should Yu Yang pull the chair from out under his ass to teach him about adding ice to bubble tea? “I like to eat the ice.”

“You’re paying for the ice!” Yu Yang screeched. “Space in the cup that could have gone to the tea! Make your own ice at home, for _free_!!”

"Our dorm has no freezer." 

"Then _perish_???" Yu Yang could not believe he was hearing some weak-ass excuse like _our dorm has no freezer_ to justify the abomination of adding more ice to a cup of tea. "Plus, it's not like the drink doesn't already have ice, so _why_ would you need to add more ice? I don't get it, it's ridiculous and–"

“Woah woah woah,” Xiao Ji said, holding both hands in front of him, “No need to get defensive, Yu Yang. Lao Jiang is right, the ice is tasty. Plus, I usually can’t finish the drink if I don’t get more ice, so–”

“Get a smaller size, Xiao Ji?”

“That’s my own business, Yang...”

"Things are getting heated in the bubble tea fandom," Da Bai observed sagely, taking a sip from his water bottle.

"Shut the hell up and don't buy tea if you have water!" Yu Yang fired at him.

"But I'm thirsty~" Da Bai whined, and Yu Yang reflected that he was fighting a losing battle with his friends. His inane friends who added ice to their bubble tea orders. Who also happened to outnumber him three to one.

"Why are you so passionate about the ice discourse anyway?" Lao Jiang asked. Da Bai snickered, and oh Yu Yang really wanted to pull the chair out from under Lao Jiang and then run Da Bai's toes over with it–

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "Okay. Enough. I'll get the orders: lemon tea for Da Bai and Xiao Ji, black tea macchiato for Lao Jiang, and oolong latte for me."

"I think you're forgetting something essential," Xiao Ji said, innocently. 

" _MORE. ICE._ For you morons, and no ice for me." Yu Yang ground out, emphasising each syllable through gritted teeth. He felt like he was going to get heartburn. 

"That's good," Xiao Ji said, with a sweet smile that made Yu Yang want to run over Xiao Ji's toes after he was done with Da Bai's. "Just checking to see that you hadn't forgotten." 

"Oh, we haven't talked about sugar levels," Da Bai said, suddenly. "We should confirm those. What level do you guys usually get? I usually get around 75 percent."

It turned out that Xiao Ji usually got around 50%, while Yu Yang and Lao Jiang usually got around 75% too. 

"I think I'll just get 75 percent then," Xiao Ji said, "It'll be less trouble on the barista to remember our orders." 

"Okay," Yu Yang confirmed. "Then I've got the order down. I'm going down to buy the tea now, and if any of you bastards change your mind along the way, I absolutely do not want to know and will not comply. So do not text me to tell me that you want something else. Bye." 

There was a lazy chorus of _byes_ , and _don't get run over by a bike, yang_ , and Yu Yang shut the dorm door on the three depraved ice-guzzlers. 

***

"Two lemon teas, one black tea macchiato, one oolong latte. All 75% sugar, and no ice for the oolong latte and more ice for the two lemon teas and the black tea macchiato." 

The barista at the counter gave Yu Yang a Look, and then glanced at the long line forming behind him with tired eyes.  

"Okay," he said, and Yu Yang could tell he was holding in a sigh reserved for single customers who get four cups of tea. "That will be 69 yuan." 

"Nice," Yu Yang said automatically, and gives him a twenty and a fifty. 

"Keep the change," he said, feeling very generous. He was on a roll, doing good deed after good deed. First, buying tea for his good-for-nothing ice-munching dorm mates, and then, resisting his urges to run their toes over, and now, tipping? What was he, a model citizen?! This was too much. Good karma had to throw a boyfriend in his way soon, if he kept this up. 

***

"I'm, back," Yu Yang breathes heavily, standing at the door with his delivery bag of tea. He was not a jock– climbing up four floors of stairs with the added weight of teas was too much. Maybe the school could consider installing elevators in the student dorms. If it cost too much financially, they could prioritise the Arts blocks, and leave the Sports blocks last. He was going to have to bring this up at the next Liaison Department meeting, and seriously pester Huanwen until he agreed to circulate a student petition on the matter. 

His deadbeat dorm mates swarmed to the door in an instant, like moths drawn to an open flame, and Yu Yang handed out the drinks to them. He felt like the father of three ungrateful children who never greeted him at the door unless he had food in hand. 

"My macchiato has no _ice_?" Lao Jiang said, voice going up in disbelief.

Yu Yang was instantly filled with malicious glee. He could hardly believe that God had intervened in such a way, taking direct action against Lao Jiang and teaching him the ways of the light. 

"Ha, _GOOD_ ," Yu Yang gloated, pointing at him. "I'm not going to walk back and tell them they got your order wrong, drink your iceless drink and be thankful that such a mistake–"

"Wait, I think yours has ice– _like_ , a lot of ice–" Lao Jiang said, holding up Yu Yang's oolong latte. To Yu Yang's horror, he saw that Lao Jiang was right. The ice that should have chocked Lao Jiang's macchiato was instead crowding out the drink in Yu Yang's tea. He felt claustrophobic just looking at ice in his drink, tightly piled on top of each one another to form a domineering pillar in his plastic cup.

"It was a mix-up?" Da Bai asked, shocked. Yu Yang thinks that his soul must have left his body by now. 

"Looks like our order was too confusing," Xiao Ji said, chuckling. “Gotta make it simpler.” Yu Yang groaned, and cursed at the sky, but mostly at his terrible, coercive dorm mates. Coercive, ice-chomping dorm mates. 

"No more tea with no ice, Yu Yang. From now on, you're getting more ice, just like the rest of us." 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! please comment and leave feedback :)


	2. There's Always Room 706 不行还有706室

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the first day at school, Yu Yang finds out his dorm assignment is on the fourth floor. (with chinese translation 附加中文翻译）  
> 第一天开学，虞扬发现自己被安排住在四楼。

"I’m on level four?!"

Yu Yang can barely believe his rotten luck, being assigned to a dorm on the fourth floor.

The student helper bearing the news flinches. "Yeah, well..."

"I'm just a little superstitious, can I– can I not?"

"Student, someone has to live on the fourth floor though..."

"Can’t- can't they leave that floor empty?"

"That would be economically unsound..."

"What about not building the fourth floor? Just going straight to the fifth after the third?"

"That would just be confusing... Hey, on the bright side, you have room 408! Isn’t that great– think of the student who got room 404!"

"O," Yu Yang pauses, considering. "I guess eight isn’t too bad..."

"Right?" The student helper says, checking his list and sounding half-desperate. "I mean, if you really care about superstition and all that, Room 706 has an extra space, and I could speak to the teachers and shift yourrooming assignment to–"

"No, that’ll be alright," Yu Yang says decisively, mid-way through his sentence. "I- that’ll be alright. I think I'll be alright with 408. Thanks though."

"Really? It’ll be no trouble, if it’s something that bothers you a lot–"

"Nah, it’s just– seven floors is too many to climb, I think I’ll stick to the fourth."

* * *

 

“咋会在四楼？！“

虞扬觉得自己运气太差了，被安排住在四楼。

学生助手不禁拉了个长脸。“没办法呀—”

“我有点儿迷信，可以不要吗？”

“学生，四楼也必须有人住啊... ..."

"不能空着吗？”

“那建干嘛... ..."

"不建呗！直接从三楼跳到五楼咋样？“

“那不是很复杂？同学，你住408房已经不错了— 想一想住404房的同学吧！“

“哦，” 虞扬想了想，说道：“八是不错... ..."

“对吧？” 学长一边看着学生名单一边说道：“你如过真的迷信过不去的话，706室还空一个床，你想换房也不是不可以的—“

“算了，” 虞扬在学长还没说完就果断地打断了他。”没关系，我觉得408室还是挺好的— 谢了。“

“真的吗？刚才还挺在意的，我跟老师说一声也没花太多功夫—”

“嗯，七楼爬太多楼梯了，还是四楼算了。”

 


	3. Fragment a là Sappho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I forgot where I was going with this idea it was like a 408 Gothic thing. Take it as a Fragment a là Sappho

Lao Jiang's blog

September 19 2017

 

returning to dorm after the hols is always hard. i'm excited to see da bai and the rest; that much is true, but. there always is a sense of unease in the first weeks. agreements over toothbrush, over bathing, are forgotten. the simplest routines, gone. quarrels rise over the smallest things. yu yang forgot to top up the electricity card and we got plunged in darkness; xiao ji didn't save his work and he lost not only his two hours of progress but somehow the entire goddamn file, no one knows with xiao ji, honestly. last semester da bai took a morning class every wednesday, so he would buy breakfast for everyone when he came back at about ten. well guess what: he passed that module, and i forgot, and at ten o'clock i was calling him up none stop from my bunk and he's just like, what's up???? you jerk? and i was like. shit, yeah, you don't take SL0349 (or whatever) anymore and im like sorry dude and he hangs up. stuff like that. 

 

and i have to remind the boys to help me water my bonsai. i thought we established this, finally! towards the end of last term, when i was on an exchange trip and my trees didn't die when i was back (apparently da bai and yu yang took turns watering my babies, xiao ji just. well he was xiao ji) and now the both of them have forgotten. again. 

 

this is not just my tree, you guys! i say to them, maybe a little hysterically. it's a team effort! if it dies, the feng shui of the whole dorm suffers!  xiao ji, you want to get C-s again? 

 

he shushes me, irate. 

 

then can we take turns taking care of the plants on the balcony! please and thank you! i say. i don't believe in feng shui or any of those old wifes sayings one bit, but i've found that xiao ji is oddly superstitious. doesn't like me saying anything bad. he believes they'll come true. 

 

of course i don't hate any of them. i mean, it's small things. it's fine. 

 

Anonymous Post on Forum

Subject: 'Happenings, of an origin possibly Supernatural in nature' 

 

Anon: I am 20/Male, attending university. Recently, weird things keep happening in my dorm and I'm deathly afraid. No one has been hurt yet but I fear it's only a matter of time.

If its origins are truly supernatural, I fear even reaching out for help is no use. If it is human– perhaps that is worse! The thought that my dorm mates are doing such cruel things is a thought I dare not entertain. Rather a malignant force than a belligerent foe in disguise as a friend, I say! Although to be honest both are horrific to the mind. My heart feels chills 

 

Comments: 

Anon #24601: lol bro what major you studying feels like i jst read a vctorian novel. hv you considered droping out of sch to become a writter

Reply by User ChicknLittle: That is incredibly hurtful. I created an account on this forsaken site for the express purpose of seeking serious help for my dire situation and I chose to post anonymously to protect my identity. While I may be safe online, I am telling you that I am not exaggerating when I say: my real-life sense of self is fracturing and in dire danger of shattering due to these incidents! And yet you mock me so thoroughly and heartlessly.

Anon #24601: Cluck cluck. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Xiao Ji in chinese = little chick
> 
> theres a long story behind this update if anyone is interested. 
> 
> In May there was suddenly a reader who left me very kind comments on this fic and I thought, I Must Update. So I begun writing this chapter in ao3 drafts with the idea of doing a Victorian epistolary account of some supernatural happening... and then left it for a while... and ao3 deleted my draft...
> 
> Just a few hours ago I went on wordcounter.com and lo and behold this fic was copy-pasted in there. So here is the fragment. However I’ve forgotten how it ends, and what happens, and for the life of me I can’t remember. If I ever do recall, I’ll develop it fully and post it.


End file.
